Questions about the community routes

[USRailFan]

Hi.
Got some questions about some of the routes available on community CDs.

1) I understand Paddington to Penzance is set in the 20s/30s, and Dorset Coast in the "modern day", but which era is Burton - Derby ("steam era" can be anything from the 1840s to 1968...), Thames - Mersey and Yorkshire Coast Railway set in?'

2) Do any of these routes use "real" terrain (ie based on DEM data)? Or is it all "hand-made"?

3) Would Paddington to Penzance be prototypical for the "Castle" class steamers (like the Pendennis included with MSTS)?

[Easilyconfused]

Hi.
Got some questions about some of the routes available on community CDs.

1) I understand Paddington to Penzance is set in the 20s/30s, and Dorset Coast in the "modern day", but which era is Burton - Derby ("steam era" can be anything from the 1840s to 1968...), Thames - Mersey and Yorkshire Coast Railway set in?'

Burton to Derby route in the 1950-65 era built in ukfinescale.

Era Late 1950's to Mid 1960's

The Yorkshire Coast Route uses track work mostly based on early 20th Century 25 inch OS maps circa 1898-1912 so that long gone sidings can be incorporated. In fact some of these have remained in a disused state in reality for over a century, while others are long gone and been built over. Also used are NER Line Diagrams from around 1914 to 1935 where obtainable to help establish fine details of the branches. Further information about the branches modelled in the route is included within the route itself. As to whether the route is intended to be real or fictional I'll leave that for the user to decide!

[thenudehamster]

Dorset Coast is effectively 'now' - or at least within the last few years as there have been a couple of engineering alterations around Basingstoke in the last twelve months which have changed things a little; not a lot - the curve onto the Reading line was relaid to a gentler radius and the speed limit raised to 25mph last year, new signalling was installed but I don't know if the hardware has changed drastically or just had a control system update. As far as I know the track layout is accurate, as is the gradient profile and general geography; the scenery is, however, largely fictional -although by special request the 'Ivory Tower' of the AA headquarters was added...

Unless it's specifically mentioned, 'steam era' tends to mean BR steam, so between about 1950 - 1965 as has been mentioned for Burton-Derby is the default condition. The SECR branch is pre-grouping, obviously, and the likes of Pat Dalton's 1920's extended Settle and Carlisle is fairly specific. Thaxted HAS to be between 1913 and 1952 - that's as long as it existed and it changed little in the whole period. Modern Image is usually specific to a Post-modernisation era, such as Generation 1 diesel, BR blue-grey, NSE 'toothpaste' livery period, and similar - but it's amazing how much pleasure a little 'what if' scenario can give. Unless you are dead set on recreating an absolutely accurate scenario (and MSTS is only accurate up to a point...) allow yourself a little imaginative licence.
Bear in mind, too, that despite the best efforts of many devotees, the MSTS physics aren't always as close to reality as we'd like, so if the gradient profile or the absolute geography of the route are a little off, it's not going to make that much difference...

[dean1986]

I think there should be a product description of every community route as when you are on the CD ordering page there is not alot of information on the route, era, stock included and activities.

Dean

[geezertronic]

I think there should be a product description of every community route as when you are on the CD ordering page there is not alot of information on the route, era, stock included and activities

Yes I was wondering that as well... maybe people who have the routes could submit reviews either to the UKTrainSim guys for posting in the reviews section or post reviews here on a thread? A lot of decent effort goes into creating these routes and in my opinion this should be shown off more for the whole community to see

[Lad491]

Isnt that what the route registry is for. Take a look and see, I think it will have what you want.

[geezertronic]

Isnt that what the route registry is for. Take a look and see, I think it will have what you want.

The Route Registry has a good map of the Cannock Chase route but does not have anything on Thames Mersey which is the one I was looking for detail on.

[thenudehamster]

Isnt that what the route registry is for. Take a look and see, I think it will have what you want.

The Route Registry has a good map of the Cannock Chase route but does not have anything on Thames Mersey which is the one I was looking for detail on.

It's a while since I used T-M as it's still across the pond, but the title should give you a fairly big hint. It's basically the West Coast Main Line from Euston as far as Liverpool and Preston, if my memory is accurate. It can be set in two eras, 1950s-60s steam or post-modernisation electric, so has an enormous amount of scope. You could actually use steam stock from almost any era as most of the differences in scenery are only things like BR logos on stations, though Euston and BNS might prove problematic if they're in 'rebuilt' status. As with all UKTS CDs, on the CD is a fair-sized selection of appropriate stock for the different eras, plus a wealth of activities. They are literally intended to be almost Plug 'n' Play.